A Tribute to My Mother

 She passed away at the ripe old age of 91, with no regrets. I know, because she said so, many a time. Our expected life span is probably around 70-odd years, in most cases. And some of us are afflicted with ailments large and small, in our old age. Barring a pace-maker in her heart, she had none of those ailments-in fact, she treated with homeopathy, many others who needed help, till recently. 

The pandemic actually gave me a chance to meet her more often than otherwise, as I got stuck in Pune and was teaching from there, my classes at IIM Indore. So it was that we celebrated her 91st birthday on August 10, with a Zoom call the previous day, and a cake-cutting on the 10th with a couple of cousins. She was happy, and listened to a few Youtube videos of her favourite Hindi songs from yesteryear.

Of course, she led a remarkable life, first as a medical student, and then at CMC Vellore for her housemanship, and then as a doctor at Dhanbad/Katras in the coalfield hospitals, before moving South. I was born at Kothagudem, in the Singareni Collieries regional headquarters. We moved to Bellampalli and Ramagundam along the way. She (and my dad) settled in Pune in 1989 after retiring, and lived in the same house till Nov. 2020. She travelled a lot, when she was mobile, visiting my brother in the US a couple of times, and Malaysia and Rajasthan with a travel agency. Also spent time at Hyderabad occasionally, at my sister's. Had a Bridge-players' club going at her own house till 3 years ago. Regularly hosted visitors who came from her past, relatives included. Food and laughter was always on the menu. 

Her life was fulfilling, and happy. What more could we ask for, as her kids? She wanted to be home, not in a hospital, at the end. She got her wish. Some pics..

On her doorstep above, and studying the menu in Hyderabad (below)

Beach near Shrivardhan, with my cousin. (above)

Wacka-doo with her niece, my cousin a couple of years ago.

2017-18 in Pics

Some pics from this year and last.

 Two spots of significance- Sigiriya, Sri Lanka (above) and the Gurudwara in Nanded.

 Above- looking out at Pondicherry, and below, cruising at Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

 Flowers on show, January, at Pune's Empress Garden. And below, celebrating my Mom's 88th, also at Pune.

Qasbah, a restaurant in Hyderabad where some of us Engineering college-mates met.

2017 Memories

 Shafique and Pallavi, my twins according to Facebook. Bangalore.

 Mom's 88th birthday. Pune, August 2017.

 Mumbai with Garima- golfer, student. Below, outing with a lovely MDP group (Digital Marketing) at Indore.

My mom completed 88 years of an accomplished life on the planet, and we celebrated that in August, around her birth date. Quite a good gathering of cousins and aunts/uncles and kids, of course. Lots of old pics were flashing on the screen, reminding us all of the golden years (hers and ours).

Meeting friends and old students was another highlight. Visited Bangalore for a conference, and went to have a home-cooked dinner at Pallavi’s new home with her husband. Also met Shafique and Zargar Basharat, two likely authors of digital marketing cases for a forthcoming book. On the same lines, caught up with Supriya Jain, another student of IMT Nagpur who is into Content Writing/Digital Marketing at Delhi. Met Garima Shah, an ex-student who played Golf with me at IMT Nagpur. That is always special! And re-discovered Divya Singh and Shraddha Nigdikar, both in Mumbai.

Had a get-together with the IIM Indore student team (Kalaivani, et. al.) that won the Google Online Marketing Challenge, with karaoke skills being tested in various languages. It was great fun. Taught a batch of PGP-MX (our weekend MBA program) in which the women (Kamayani, Lalita, and others) were clear toppers in participation- and one of these women also topped the batch later on, at their Convocation.

There was a conference visit to Sri Lanka, where a multi-cultural crowd of Tourism researchers was a highlight-they were from all over-U.K., Australia, U.S., Africa and Asia-Vietnam, Japan. This was my second trip to Lanka, and I fell in love with the Emerald Isle all over again- and especially its easy visa process.

Meeting new and old friends in Chennai brought up the end of the year, during a visit to Great Lakes Institute. Dheeraj is an alum of Kirloskar Institute, and Indira, a friend from my music group. Radha was an old Hyderabad neighbour when I worked at Vignana Jyoti (VJIM) and lived in Habsiguda. Connected with a couple of VJIM alums on Facebook, too- Ranjana and Rashmi.

An eventful year!

Romancing the Books- Launch at Pagdandi

 THIS WAY IS EASIER, DAD. The book is about conversations between Anjali, and her Dad. Both read out parts from the book.

 Smiling at 88. My mom with my niece Miskil.

Milind, Medha, Marla, Nikhil, and Anjali, Miskil, Anu and me.

Books have a way of enticing you-and book launches too. This was one where the subjects of the book were Hari and Anjali, two of my family. And many more in the audience, as the pics above show-Marla and Nikhil were imports from the U.S. and the rest of us from Mumbai, Indore and Hyderabad. The cute book store is in Pune. It was also special coz it was on August 10th, my mother's 88th birthday.

88 Not Out

That's not a cricketer's score. That's how old my Mom will be on 10th August. She retired as a company doctor in an administrative role from Singareni Collieries in Andhra Pradesh, in 1989.

Needless to say, I grew up in small coal-mining towns. We had great fun in the cosmopolitan crowd that we had around us, and our friends are still many of those we grew up with (Kiran, Nisha, Avinash, Aashu, Ritu, Sharat, Shobhna, Shalina, Shonika, Mahesh, Manoj, Subodh, Chitrangi, Shubhangi, Milind, Anant, Shashank, Neetika, Shailaja, to name a few). Small towns have that kind of warmth, and we can still meet anyone from those days, and instantly get along. Same with my Mom and her ex-colleagues-they still meet when visiting each others' towns.

It was an incredible thing for her to become a woman doctor when not many entered the profession-or any profession. She lived in Dhanbad/Katraas, Vellore among other places. Also completed her M.D. after her marriage. Grew up to administer the company hospitals in addition to her Ob-Gyn duties. We remember a lot of patients coming home to consult her or just to give her a gift-mostly wives of coal-miners who couldn't make it to the hospital. She learnt Telugu and conversed freely with all of them.

We were privileged of course to have a mother and doctor at home, and she excelled at both the roles. Education was of course a respected thing at home, but the career choices were entirely left to us- just a coincidence that all three of us (my brother, sister and I) veered into Management. The pic below is from IMT Nagpur a few years ago, and with her is her grand-daughter Prarthana.